For assessors: How to give feedback

For assessors: How to give feedback

Feedback structure 

We advocate using the ‘Compliment Sandwich’ approach for giving feedback on CREST projects.

You do this by:
  1. Starting with a positive - acknowledge something that was done well or you particularly liked about the project.
  2. Next, move on to areas of development. The purpose of this section is to provide constructive feedback that will enable students to improve their projects and meet the CREST assessment criteria. When providing feedback, it is important to identify areas for improvement and give prompts or examples of how to improve. For example, "Your project could be improved by including a clear plan of how you will spend your time. A Gantt chart is useful tool to show this."
  3. We also encourage you to use your specialist knowledge to improve the project. For example, “have you considered using XYZ tool or technique, or researching [insert specialist knowledge] topic ?”
  4. Finish the feedback with something nice, positive and/or inspirational for the student. 

Other general tips to keep in mind –

  1. Address what you write directly to the student
  2. Refer to any notes you made against each criterion.

Quality of Feedback


Your feedback must be constructive, and give students clear steps on how to improve their project. It should acknowledge students’ efforts and work – regardless of whether a project has achieved a CREST Award.

The feedback should be comprehensive and well targeted, with a minimum of 1 positive comment overall and a comment for each criterion the student didn’t meet.

Tone

Make sure to use a professional tone at all times - not overly friendly or familiar, or harsh. Your spelling grammar and punctuation should be correct (within reason).


Remember the ‘Your Feedback’ section is the only part the student sees, so make sure to include your full feedback here.

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